Azerbaijan, Baku, September 19 /Trend A.Akhundov/
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Azerbaijani government prepare new project which will be the continuation of the "Competition and trade in Azerbaijan" project which completes on September 30, USAID/Azerbaijan Mission Director Brooke Isham told journalists on Thursday.
According to her, the project, the details of which are still negotiated, will cost about $18 million. Half of the funding will be provided by the government, the rest by USAID.
"The term of the new project is likely to be as the previous one, and last 3 years," Isham said.
According to the head of the negotiation group, Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev, who also spoke at the event, said the implementation of this project played a significant role in the process of Azerbaijan's accession to the WTO.
"We have made significant progress in this process in recent years, and U.S support was very useful in this," Mammadguliyev said.
He expressed his hope that the parties will sign an agreement on starting such a new project by the beginning of the next round of WTO negotiations in late October and early November.
Joint work was carried out on the project during three years on Azerbaijan's private and public sectors to achieve progress in competition, taxes, banking, job creation, etc. In addition, work with the banking sector was carried out in the project for increasing opportunities of agricultural producers to attract funds.